Project Ideas:
-Picture slideshow
-quiz sheet on rwanda
-google earth
-hotel rwanda the movie clips
-compare lives


Decimation means the killing of every tenth person in a population and in the spring and early summer of 1994 a program of massacres decimated the Republic of Rwanda. Although the killing was low tech-performed largely by machete-it was carried out at dazzling speed: of an original population of about seven and a half million, at least eight hundred thousand people were killed in just a hundred days. Rwandans often speak of a million deaths, and they three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust. It was the most efficient mass killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If there is one thing sure in this world, it is certainly this: that it will not happen to us a second time.

It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.

"The people are living separately together," he said. "So there is responsibility. I cry, you cry. You cry, I cry. We all come running, and the one that stays quiet, the one that stays home, must explain. Is he in league with the criminals? Is he a coward? And what would he expect when he cries? This is simple. This is normal. This is community."

"So there is responsibility. I cry, you cry. We all come running, and the one that stays quiet, the one that stays home, must explain. Is he in league with the criminals? Is he a coward? And what would he exect when he cries? This is simple. This is normal. This is community."

Back Round on Rwanda:
It is located a few degrees away from the equator. It is bordered by Uganda. There is a rocky hill called Nyarubuye and a church where many Tutsis were slaughtered in mid-April in 1994. After the tragedy all of the people's belongings and homes were destroyed and they were barely clothed. There were people dead all over the ground and there were skulls all over the place as well. As Philip was walking around Nyarubuye, he didn't notice that a skull was on the ground and stepped on it and it broke. After he had broke it, he was very careful of where he was walking after, because he was nervous that he was going to step on another skull. Not only people were slaughtered to death, but animals were also slaughtered. Even though, they were killed 13 months earlier, they weren't moved from the ground and were just left there, and surprising Philip found that they didn't smell like the dead, so he believed that they were pictured of the dead.Tutsi vs. Hutus- 800,00 people killed over 100 days.

Characters:
Philip- He is the author, and he travels around Rwanda learning, and experiencing the devastation of the prior years genocide of the Tutsi tribe. He only wanted to go to Nyarubuye not to deal with the experience that they were through, but the experience of looking at them.

Hutu Tribe:

-Largest of 3 ethnic groups in Rwanda
-85% of the popualtion
-Hutu are also known as Bahutu or Wahutu and are basically the Central African ethnic group
-Most of the tribe members are farmers.
-Most of the tribe resides in rural areas in grass huts in their respective farms.
-Other then farming, they are engaged in cattle hearding which is an important source of income for the tribe members
-Follow their own tribal religions
-Converted to Roman Catholicism when Christian missionaries came to the area.
-The main language spoken by the people of this tribe is Kirundi. Kirundi is the native language of Burundi
-Tradesman taught the native French and Swahilli.


Tutsi Tribe:


LOCATION: Rwanda, Burundi, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)
POPULATION: Approximately 9 million
LANGUAGE: Kinyarwanda; Kirundi; French, English
RELIGION: Christianity combined with traditional beliefs






Chapters 1-4
The first two chapters were explaining different places in Rwanda and the history of it.
Towards the middle of chapter two, the book was beginning to talk about the death of adults, children, and even animals. Most people were killed by machetes.
Dr. Gerard is accused of murder of the people in Rwanda. He goes to look at a house, and talking to a family whose next door neighbor was apart of the genocide.
Dr. Gerard interviewed a man, who thought his wife and children were all dead, until Dr. Gerard told him that his family is still alive and they weren't killed by machetes.
They don't write, because they don't have an alphabet to write. For them everything is oral, there tradition and everything else in their lives.


Author Biography
Philip Gourevitch: This is Philip's first book. He became interested in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 as he followed the news reports about it. He became frustrated with his inability to understand what was happening from so far away so he began to take trips of Rwanda in 1995. Over a span of two he made 9 trips to Rwanda, and the neighboring countries of Zaire, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania to report to events of the genocide and the aftermath. Many reviews state that Philip Gourevitch should have credit for informing United States of this time period in history. Other reviewers have said he is world's leading writer of the genocide.

Chapters 5-8:
"... and it might well happen to most of us dainty people that we were in the thick of the battle of Armageddon without being aware of anything more than the annoyance of a little explosive smoke and struggle on the ground immediately about us."

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/285/9/1216.full